Doctor Who: Toby Hadoke’s Time Travels

Happy Times and Places 5.1 - The Evil of the Daleks 1

Our special guest this time around - Big Finish, BBC Books and Doctor Who Magazine writer Simon Guerrier doesn't make it easy. He has chosen the very first missing story to be selected for Happy Times and Places. It's highly regarded though, the epic The Evil of the Daleks, which begins with the Doctor and Jamie marooned in singing 60s London. 

Happy Times and Places 5.2 - The Evil of the Daleks 2

A moment of respite as the pictures start moving again and we see whether all the fuss about The Evil of the Daleks is justified. Special guest, writer Simon Guerrier, seems to think so, but will your host, Toby Hadoke, succumb to the charms of the story as it spirals us back in time to meet the stories Big, bewhiskered Bad. Is there as much here as legend says there its, to take Toby to one of his Happy Times and Places. 

Doctor Who : Too Much Information 1.1 - An Unearthly Child

Doctor Who : Too Much Information, is an episode-by-episode, blow-by-blow, sometimes day-by-day account of the making of every single episode (yes, episode, not story) of Britain's longest running science-fiction show, shedding light on the Who, What and Where of (Doctor) Who. It's monthly for now but will hopefully pick up speed once Toby knows what he's doing. It's a collation of paperwork, interviews and new research designed to explore even the tiniest nooks and crannies of the Doctor Who universe for trivial nuggets, all told in an accessible manner and augmented by a soundtrack specially composed by the award winning Waen Shepherd.

This is Episode 1.1 : An Unearthly Child 

Written and Narrated by Toby Hadoke

Happy Times and Places 5.3 - The Evil of the Daleks 3

Back to still pictures for the third episode of this lost classic, selected by writer Simon Guerrier. Your host Toby Hadoke has to see if he can work out what it is that Simon likes best about this particular episode of Doctor Who, as always, trying to accentuate the positive and celebrate the best things that it has to offer. 

Happy Times and Places 5.4 - The Evil of the Daleks 4

Writer Simon Guerrier chooses one of the least tangible things about this episode of a second Doctor classic, so enjoy yourselves as Toby tries to guess what it is as Jamie fights Kemel, Victoria's hanky launches a million anecdotes, and Patrick Troughton is on holiday and so represented only on film. Film we can't actually see. 

Happy Times and Places 5.5 - The Evil of the Daleks 5

The story goes from being merely good to touching greatness as the Daleks start to behave in a most peculiar fashion - and giving Toby and his special guest Simon Guerrier plenty to wax lyrical about. But will they agree on the episode's best bit? Its rather an amusing little podcast don't you think so Jamie? 

Happy Times and Places 5.6 - The Evil of the Daleks 6

Well here is a first, a commentary that was originally so tedious that Toby decided to do it again. Doctor Who has an illustrious history of getting things wrong on the first attempt and trying again, so hopefully it's the right call. He hasn't cheated though, he goes back to his original recording when it comes to seeing if he and special guest Simon Guerrier like the same thing about this episode - which returns the Doctor to Skaro for the first time since his initial visit. And that's just the start of the action. 

Happy Times and Places 5.7 - The Evil of the Daleks 7

Toby Hadoke continues to try to comb through the murk of still pictures and indistinct soundtracks to see if the gloriousness of an acclaimed lost Dalek classic still shines through. It's been an epic, but now we come to the final end! All hell breaks loose on Skaro. Toby and special guest Simon Guerrier have been pretty close with their guesses, so will our host pull off a final victory and work out what Simon's favourite things about this amazing episode are, or will it all end with a massive explosion and lots of mess? 

Happy Times and Places 6.1 - The Rescue 1

Released exactly 56 years after the episode we are watching was broadcast (well, we've put this out 10 minutes earlier in case you want to line it up for a time busting simulcast) this will be a double hit: episode two will be out later tonight. The TARDIS lands a very sad Doctor on a planet where all the tea has gone cold : Dido. Where everyone is as dead as a Dodo. But not Dodo, she's not the companion yet. That's Vicki. Well, she's not the companion yet either but... oh never mind. Toby Hadoke has to guess what TV script editing genius Andrew Elland has identified as the best things in this 1965 Doctor Who story. 

Happy Times and Places 6.2 - The Rescue 2

TV script editor Andrew Ellard (The Detectorists, Red Dwarf) has set Toby the task of identifying the best bits of a Doctor Who story with few sets and a tiny cast so there's not exactly an abundance of things to get his teeth into... or is there? The Doctor fights mass murder on an unprecedented scale, meets some silent angels who definitely aren't weeping, and solves a murder mystery with the fewest possible suspects. Oh, and one of the TARDIS crew murders a pet in cold blood. It's all go on Dido. Once again, comedian Toby Hadoke has to watch and to sing the story's praises.